


Beautiful Stranger

by KyHasNoLife



Category: DC's Legends of Tomorrow (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Hospital, Enemies to Lovers, F/F, Multi, Original Character(s), Slow Burn
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-04-02
Updated: 2021-02-02
Packaged: 2021-02-28 18:47:47
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 13
Words: 14,018
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23441947
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/KyHasNoLife/pseuds/KyHasNoLife
Summary: Dr. Ava Sharpe loves working at Northwestern Memorial hospital, but when a new attending comes will she love it more or less?IDK I SUCK AT SUMMARIES
Relationships: Charlie/Zari Tomaz | Zari Tarazi, Gideon/Rip Hunter, Nora Darhk/Ray Palmer, Sara Lance/Ava Sharpe
Comments: 92
Kudos: 203





	1. "Trauma, Yay!"

**Author's Note:**

> Also this may be inaccurate doctor things, I learn stuff from the internet. Also this is bad quarantine writing, so hope you like it, but if you don't then oh well

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It's not that long, but it took an hour and a half, and it's 3:30 am so i have class in 6 hours... im having fun

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Can you guess who said this chapters title?

Ava's day had been relatively normal so far, she woke up at 5, worked out, showered, ate breakfast, left her house by 6:30, got to the hospital at 6:45, and got ready for 7 o'clock rounds. She did this everyday, her resident today was Heywood. She didn't necessarily have a problem with him, but he was so interested in plastics not cardio. "Morning, Sharpe," Ava's best friend, Nora Darhk, said walking by to drop a chart at the nurses station. "Morning Darhk, cardiac trauma come in last night?" Ava asked, even though it was the only reason the trauma surgeon would have a chart for a cardio patient. "Yep," Nora replied, emphasizing the p. Ava was continuing to chart, marking what was ordered on her 9 year old with cardiomyopathy awaiting a heart transplant, when she noticed her best friend hadn't moved. "Nora, why are you slummin' in my Cardio Wing?" Ava inquired, not looking up from her chart. "There are no new traumas today! No car crashes, no buldings have collapsed! The ER is so boring right now!" Nora complained, causing Ava to laugh at her friend. "Only you, Nora Darhk, could be wishing for a bunch of people to almost die," Ava smirked at her friend. "I mean, it doesn't seem that bad, it'd be a lot of surgeries," Nate Heywood, exclaimed with a smile walking past Nora to the nurses station before continuing, "Morning Doctors."

"And this is the Cardio Wing, though I doubt you'll spend a lot of time here," Ava heard Ray laugh behind her, she and Nora averted their attention to the tall doctor talking to a short, smiling, blonde woman, her hair was in a bun with a few loose strands to frame her face. "Nora, who's your husband talking to?" Ava asked, looking back at her friend. Nora just shrugged, before going to greet them, she shook the short woman's hand, "Nora Darhk, Head of Trauma." The short woman said something back while smiling. All of the sudden, Ray and Nora's pagers both went off. "It's the ER, gotta go, see ya Sara," Ray said, Nora following behind him, winking while passing her best friend, "Trauma, yay?" Ava just laughed before looking at the arguably attractive blonde. "Hi, I'm Ava Sharpe," Ava said approaching the short girl, her hand out. The girl took Ava's hand, "Dr. Sara Lance, new Head of Peds, board certified in Trauma too though." Ava's eyes went wide, and Nate spoke quickly, "Your Dr. Quentin Lance's daughter right?" Sara nodded yes, and Nate continued, "Cool! Do you think I could meet him! I mean his cancer treatments have completely changed the game, it's amazing!" "Heywood, go check on my heart transplant in room 2134, and bring this chart to Peds" Ava cut him off. "Yes ma'am," The eager resident nodded before walking away. "Cardio, huh?" Sara smiled, trying to change the subject away from her. Ava nodded with a smirk. "So, what's it like to have a God complex?" The shorter blonde asked, her blue eyes seemingly very bright.

Ava scoffed and turned red, "E-excuse me?" Sara opened her mouth to respond when both of their pagers went off. They each ran to the ER, and they were pointed to the same bed. An eager resident met them at the bed, "Lukas Taylor, 7 year old boy, presents with chest pain after being unrestrained in a car accident with his parents." Both attendings went to grab the chart, but Sara got it first, and smirked at the other blonde. "Okay, get a chest CT, page me when you have the results, if it's surgical, you can scrub in," Sara smiled at the resident before marking it on the kids chart, and walking away. "Dr. Lance, you won't be sticking with the patient during his scans?" Ava asked/accused, loudly. The younger attending had an annoyed smile on her face as she turned to look at the older one, "Dr. Sharpe, I have 20 kids on my surgical floor, and I would like to meet all of them today, so I will see you when the scans are up."

Sara was paged to CT about 30 minutes later, she ran over to see Ava Sharpe, Heywood from earlier in the cardio wing, and the resident from the ER. "I gotta get in there right away, try to repair the valve," Ava said pointing out the obvious defects to the residents. "How are you planning the surgery?" Sara asked, looking at the scans. "A median sternotomy," Ava glared at the Peds surgeon. "Yeah, no, you're gonna do it minimally invasive," Sara said leaning down to look at the scans, Ava couldn't help but notice her necklace, it was beautiful, but that didn't mean anything right now. "Excuse me? You've done nothing, but disrespect me all day, I am the cardiac surgeon here, this isn't up to you!" Ava shouted. "An open procedure is completely unnecessary when we have the tools to do a minimally invasive procedure! So as the the lead surgeon on this case let me be clear, your plan will kill the patient and you're arguing with me and wasting time we don't have to waste, so either you do the procedure, or I will find someone who will!" Sara yelled at the taller woman. "This kids heart is torn! An open procedure would be more dangerous, but with the state his heart is in it will be more effective!" Ava yells back, still glaring at the shorter woman. "This is what I meant earlier GOD COMPLEX!" Sara replied, looking surprisingly intimidating for someone so short. "You know what? You are s-" "ENOUGH!" Rip Hunter, the Chief of Surgery yelled at the women who had made a large scene.

"Ava, you will try Lance's way, if it fails than you can try your way! What you will not do is have a screaming match in the middle of my hospital!" Rip scolded while shaking his head. "Dr. Tarazi, if they continue to fight, page Rory and Jiwe," Rip said looking at the resident from the ER, who nodded. "Now, if this happens again I will personally make you sure you guys spend 24 hours in a room together until you get along! Understood?" Rip asked, switching his gaze between the two women who both just nodded, if any surgery Ava had to do on a kid she also had to do with Sara frickin Lance, she would never operate on a kid again.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope you liked it


	2. "A One Night Thing, Right?"

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Things happen, the chapter is kinda short, but I dind't want to drag it on, sooooo

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Can you guess who will say the title for this chapter?

Sara watched as Ava did the surgery, she noticed the residents paying attention too, they seemed so invested to learn. "Heywood," Sara said looking at the young resident. "Yes, ma'am?" He asked directing his attention to Sara. "You're planning to go into Plastics, right?" His eyes went wide and he nodded, "How'd you know?" "You have the smile," Sara shrugged, she practically grew up in a hospital, her mom was overseas, and her dad basically lived in the hospital, so her and her sister did too, little things made it obvious which specialty people were in. "Dr. Tarazi, have you decided your specialty yet?" Sara asked the woman next to Heywood. "No, ma'am, anything, but ortho interests me," The brown-eyed doctor explained. "You guys have to stop with the 'ma'am' it makes me feel old," Sara smiled at the residents who just nodded. "Why no orth-" Sara began to ask. "Please be my quiet, Dr. Lance, this may be your patient, but he's in my OR, and I can't focus with you annoying chatter," Ava said, coldly. Sara decided not to argue, so she just nodded. 

The rest of the surgery went really well. "Dr. Tarazi, get this patient to post-op please," Sara said, looking at the resident with a smile. "And ask your chief resident to assign you to my service for a week, maybe you have what it takes for Peds, Tarazi!" Sara continued with a smile. Tarazi nodded with a smile before taking the patient. Sara and Ava both went to scrub out neither of them speaking. "Just say it! Ava randomly demanded, as she turned off her sink and leaned on it. Sara just raised an eyebrow, "Huh?" "Say it!" Ava yelled before continuing in a higher pitched voice, "You were wrong, Dr. Sharpe, I was right blah blah blah." Sara just laughed, "Is that what you think I sound like?" Ava glared at her, "Oh my GOD! Just say it! Please! Get it over with!" "No, because I wasn't gonna say anything because I don't care that I was right, I care about the fact that my patient is gonna live and have a quick recovery," Sara replied, she was getting mad at this girl, sure Ava was hot, but she was a bitch. "So no! I will not brag about the fact I did my job! I advocated for my patient! Maybe, if you weren't so stuck-up you'd see that not everything everyone does is about being right!" Sara yelled before walking away.

Sara was angry, this woman was quick to assume the worst of her, Sara went to the attendings lounge to get some clothes to change into so she could work out, she saw Ray and his wife in there when she walked in. "Sara, hey! We wanted to know if you wanted to come over for dinner tomorrow!" Ray exclaimed when he noticed her. "Uh, yeah sure, what time?" "Like 8, it's gonna be super casual, just a few of the doctors here," Nora answered, kindly. Sara nodded, about to grab her clothes when her pager went off, she quickly checked it. "Damn it!" She shouted before she started running.

Sara got to the patients bed and saw a blond, brown eyed doctor on top of one of her patients, giving her CPR, a 6 year old girl who had surgery on her leg a few days ago. "What happened?" She asked as she grabbed the chart. "She arrested while I was checking her incision sight, it's infected," The man replied, Sara was shocked when he had a British accent. "Okay, push two of epi and get a crash cart in here!" She yelled before she started to help the man. "Hell of a save, Doctor?" The man asked for Sara's name with his hand out. They got the girl to the OR in time to clear the infected muscle and make sure it didn't spread to the bone, she was now on antibiotics, they had done a hell of a job. "Lance, Sara Lance, and you are?" "Dr. John Constantine, Head of Ortho here, you must be the new Peds surgeon, you know Oliver Queen right? He wouldn't shut up about two doctors, sisters, last name Lance, last time we talked," John inquired. Sara laughed with realization, "You're that John?" "Oh, so you've heard good things about me then?" He playfully asked, the pair laughed for a second. "Join me for a drink, tonight, John?" Sara asked, the man thought for a minute before nodding.

Sara woke up in her bed, naked, next to the one and only John Constantine, she sighed and checked the time, 4:38 AM, she had more than enough time to go for a run, shower and get to work with time to spare before 7 o'clock rounds. When she got back to her apartment at 5:42 she woke John up and went to shower. When she got out of the shower, she saw John, helping himself to some food. "I live 5 minutes away from the hospital, so we'll leave at 6:15," Sara paused, "This was a one night thing, right?" John nodded, "Or it could be friends with benefits, no commitment though, love." Sara thought about it, it'd be a good way to relieve stress and lord knows she wasn't looking for anything. "Okay, no strings, I appreciate that," Sara grinned, maybe this new hospital could be fun.


	3. "Just Shut Up!"

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Now we'll see Ava's pov of the last day, and the day of the dinner

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> teehee times next chapter will be the dinner  
> Can you guess who said this chapters title?

After watching Sara walk away, Ava started to feel bad, maybe she had judged the woman too harshly. Ava shook off the thoughts and went to talk to her next patient, she had a lung transplant in an hour and she wanted to go check on the patient. After checking on the patient and making sure Nate started pre op she went to the attendings lounge to grab a snack. She saw Sara running out as she walked in. "Ava!" Nora practically yelled when she saw her best friend. Ava noticed Nora had been talking to Ray quietly. "Hi," Ava said as she walked to her locker to grab a granola bar. "Wanna have dinner with us tomorrow night?" Ray asked, excitedly. "Uh yeah sure, depends on when," Ava replied with a shrug. “8, at our place, super casual, just doctors are gonna be there," Ray exclaimed. "Who?" "Jiwe-" "Plastics or General?" Ava asked, trying to figure out which of the twins would be there. "Just listen!" Nora yelled as she playfully hit her friend. "Both Jiwes, Hunter, Gid, a-" "So fun people?" Ava cut Nora off before she could say the last name. "Yep!" Ray said enthusiastically. "Okay, I'll be there," Ava replied before walking away. 

The rest of her day was fine, she lost a patient and it sucked, but she lost patients all the time, it was fine. Right now all she wanted to do was go home, have a glass of scotch, and go to bed. The next morning, she got into work around the same time Sara did, but she didn't want to talk to her. The peds surgeon made her feel like a fool at this point, so what was the point. Ava was texting Nora something when she looked up and saw Sara's shirtless back. The women had a countless number of scars from God knows where. "What are you looking at?" Sara snapped when she felt the other woman's eyes on her. "N-nothing!" Ava squealed before turning her head and looking for her scrubs, she looked back over and saw Sara pulling the black scrubs over her shoulders. Ava quickly turned away again, okay maybe she was a little intrigued, but Sara was still annoying, and she had still humiliated Ava. 

Ava went on rounds, she still had the 9 year old cardiomyopathy patient, and she had a good feeling that today would by the day the girl would get her heart. Ava was standing at the nurses station when she saw Sara walk over. “Sharpe, I’m about to round on Kaylee Holmes, care to join me?” Sara asked, seemingly void of emotion. “Uh, yeah,” Ava looked around before spotting the resident she was looking for, “Green! Nice to have you back on my service, let’s go.” Ava saw Sara walk in with a charming smile and high five the little girl. Ava smiled before shaking her head and walking in. “Green, present,” Ava commanded, and Gary nodded. “Kaylee Holmes, 9 year old girl, presented with chest discomfort and a persistent cough, she’s waiting for a heart transplant.” “Dr. Sara, am I gonna get a heart soon?” The girl looked at Sara who just smiled. “That is the plan, and after you get it I promise we’ll play volleyball okay?” Sara assured the girl, putting her fist out for a fistbump. Ava smiled at the transaction, Sara might be annoying, but she was excellent in Peds.

Ava didn’t have a lot of surgeries scheduled for the day, she wanted to keep it light today. At lunch, she sat with Nora and Charlie, part of her was looking for Sara, but the small blonde was nowhere to be found. “Zari is looking into Peds?” Nora asked Charlie who just nodded. “You have to talk her out of it, she’s obviously made for Trauma,” Ava scoffed, and Nora nodded. “Guys, she can make her own choices,” Charlie sighed. “Why’d she decide to date you then?” Ava asked. Nora laughed and Charlie threw a carrot at the Cardio surgeon. “Amaya, hey tell them I can’t control Zari!” Charlie exclaimed when she saw her twin sister walking over. “Charlie, you can talk her into anything,” Amaya said as she sat down and took one of Ava’s fries. Ava swatted at her hand. “Hey, you talk to Heywood recently, he’s definitely crushing on you,” Ava teased, Amaya knowing the General surgeon used to have a thing for the resident. “Hey look, it’s Lance,” Amaya said pointing to the other side of the cafeteria. Ava’s head turned so quick she was afraid she might give herself whiplash, she looked down when Sara wasn’t there and her friends were laughing. “Ava! You have a crush on someone in Peds?” Charlie gasped. “People in Peds are bright and happy and so not you!” Nora laughed. Ava blushed as her friends continued to make fun of her. She didn’t have a crush on Sara, sure she was good looking, but annoying assholes weren’t her type. “Guys, stop,” Ava said when she heard her phone ringing, it might be UNOS and lord knows she couldn’t have this conversation in the background if it was. “Guys, I gotta go!” Ava yelled when they didn’t stop, she just cleaned up her tray and ran out. As soon as the phone call was over, Ava ran to a nurses station, “Page Lance!”

Sara met Ava outside Kaylee’s room, “Are you ready?” Ava nodded before the surgeons walked in.Telling people you found a heart for their kid just made you feel good. Telling someone in an hour you’ll save their kid’s life. Ava noticed the genuine smile on Sara’s face the whole time. “Okay Kaylee, Dr. Zari is gonna prep you and I’ll see you in there okay?” Sara raised an eyebrow at the kid who nodded. Ava and Sara scrubbed at the same time, Ava noticed all the jewelry the Peds surgeon was taking off, the silence was awkward so Ava decided to speak, “Uh, I’m sorry, I was rude before.” Sara looked at her and nodded, “It’s fine.” Ava looked down at her hands as she washed them. “Anduhourjobiseasierifwebecomefriendssofriends?” Ava said quickly, her cheeks red. Sara decided to get a little cocky, so she smirked and raised her eyebrow in what could be confused as a flirty manner, “Wanna say that again in english?” Ava took a deep breath before looking back at Sara, “Our job is easier if we’re friends, so let’s be friends?” Sara chuckled. “Sure, though if you get this nervous around me, it might be easier to just ask me out,” Sara teased. "Just shut up!" Ava mumbled, and Sara winked before sticking her tongue out and walking into the OR. Ava didn’t know if her cheeks had ever been so red before, maybe this friendship was a bad idea.


	4. "Asshole is correct"

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Dinner time

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Can you guess who said this chapters title?

Sara arrived at dinner 5 minutes early, at the same time as- was that Ava? The cardiac surgeon cleaned up nice, and Sara was all of the sudden regretting all the teasing she did during surgery. She also regretted all the sexual innuendos she made. She didn't know she'd be having dinner with Ava tonight, her behavior would have been much better if she had known.

"Lance?" Ava exclaimed, seemingly surprised. "Hi, I didn't know you were coming to this," Sara replied. They just stared awkwardly. "Uh, we should go in," Sara said pointing at the door. Ava nodded and walked in with the short blonde. This was certainly not what either had expected, but both just kinda shrugged it off. They were friends now. "You clean up nice Sharpe," Sara obviously checked the taller blonde. Ava rolled her eyes, "I know." Sara watched as Ava rung the doorbell. They both just stood there awkwardly waiting for Nora or Ray to open the door. A few moments later, Nora opened the door, there was a little boy behind her, about 5 years old who yelled when she saw Sara, "Auntie Sara!!" The 5 year old ran into Sara's arms. "Hey small fry!" Sara exclaimed, picking the 5 year old up. "Hi Ms. Ava!" The little girl said excitedly, she looked just like Nora, but she had Ray's bubbly personality. "Hey Syd," Ava said with a smile before they all walked in. 

"Your kids call her 'Auntie Sara' and you pretended you didn't know her!" Ava yelled at Nora. Ava had pulled Nora into the study after the encounter on the porch. "Yeah basically, can I go n-" Nora said pointing towards the door, but Ava cut her off. "Why?!" Ava asked, she was enraged. Nora lied to her about knowing Sara, but she obviously knew Sara pretty well. "She asked if Ray and I could pretend we didn't know her in a professional environment. She wanted to start over. Plus then we couldn't bring up her history with Hunter or-" "She had history Hunter!?" Ava yelled again. Her Chief of Surgery with one of her friends. "Yes, Ava, she has a history with Hunter, they dated a while back, but then something happened and she moved away," Nora explained. Ava opened her mouth to say something else, but the doorbell rang and Nora ran off to answer it.

Ava sighed and shook her head before going to the living room. On her way, she saw Ray in the kitchen cooking. They made some small talk before she went into the living room to see Sara with Damien, Ray and Nora’s 3 year old boy, Damien, was on Sara’s lap, chatting her ear off about something while Sydney, the 5 year old, climbed and jumped around and on Sara. Sara looked overwhelmed with the kids, but she was smiling and trying to keep them both entertained.

“Kids love you, you’re a pediatrician, yet you don’t look to be in love with everything that’s happening,” Ava teased with a smirk. Sara rolled her eyes, “Pediatric surgeon.” Just as she said that, Sydney jumped on her back. “Sydney, how’s school going?” Ava asked, sitting down next to Sara and taking the girl into her lap. Sara mouthed a thank you, she loved kids, she did! Just not when they were jumping all over her and trying to break her back. 

A few minutes later, Ray was with Nora, putting the kids to bed upstairs and checking on the 15 month old baby, Ollie. 

“You did a face transplant on a 10 year old!?” Sara exclaimed, she wished she worked at the hospital when Charlie did that, it would’ve been awesome to scrub in on. The doorbell rang and noticing the host were both busy Sara decided she would answer it. “Rip, hi,” Her eyes went wide when she opened the door. He noticed he was with Gideon, his hand on her back. “Lance, hey, you’re here?” “Yep, Ray and I have been friends since med school, which you knew.” “Yeah, sorry this is Gid, we’re married.” “Hi,” Gideon smiled. Gideon was pretty, that was impossible to deny. “Hi, you’re a neuro attending right?” Gideon nodded. “Well, c’mon in,” Sara smiled and moved out of the way. She hated Rip. With every ounce of her body she hated Rip.

He almost ruined her career, and he didn’t feel bad at all. She decided to enlist because of him and it caused her the hardest years of her life. They all sat down for dinner not long after Nora and Ray put the kids to bed. It was an okay dinner, they made small talk, the twins and Sara exchanged stories, she learned Charlie had an accent and Amaya didn’t because they were 9 when their parents got divorced and Charlie decided to go to London with their dad while Amaya stayed in the states with their mom. The entire table (except Ray and Nora), learned that Sara was a surgeon in the army for a few years. They all told a lot of stories about patients.

“And once, my 4th year of residency, I had this patient, with Sara actually,” Rip started to tell his story, gesturing towards Sara. “We couldn’t diagnose her, she was 13, she had cardiac pains, so we kept getting chest films and x-rays, but no one could figure out what was wrong until one day it clicked. What if it wasn’t a chest problem? What if it was something else, but it was causing chest pains, so I decided to get a head and abdominal CT and-” “You didn’t, I did,” Sara cut him off. “I decided to get the CT, we noticed the brain tumor pressing against her pain receptors, it was a microscopic tumor that I discovered that you took all the credit for,” Sara murmured, passive aggressively. Rip’s cheeks went red, “It was all a blur, I don’t remember who made the discovery.” Sara nodded and took a long sip of her wine.

The whole table had gotten silent. It was only slightly awkward. “I have to go to the restroom,” Sara said quietly before getting up. The fight about that discovery is what got her kicked out of the residency program and she clearly wasn’t quite over it. Sara just stood in the bathroom for a while, thinking. Her thoughts were cut off by a soft knock. “You okay?” She heard Ava’s voice. Sara sighed before walking out, “Yeah just annoyed.” Ava nodded, “What happened between you two?” 

“We were together, Ray and I were interns and he was a 4th year, but he was nice to me. We dated, it was fun and good until that patient. I was mad he took the credit, we fought about it a lot. Then a patient died and it was his fault, the patient shouldn’t have died. The hospital got sued, and decided they needed to fire whoever was responsible and Rip blamed me,” Sara explained. Ava scrunched her face, “Asshole.” Sara laughed, “Asshole is correct.” 


	5. "I'm gonna try to get Dr. Lance and Dr. Sharpe together."

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Aftermath of dinner

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Can you guess who says this chapters title? Hint it's not Sara or Ava if that's not obvious

Sara avoided Ava. Subconsciously at first, but over time she realized she was doing it and she couldn't stop. She had been vulnerable in front of the older doctor, and she didn't like that she had. What's next? Sara opening up to the women about her scars? NO no that was not okay. Sara liked her life now, she had dinner with Ray, Nora, and their kids once a week, she worked, she worked out, she casually hooked up with someone once a week, life was good, she didn't need or necessarily want a new friend. Her thoughts were broken when she got paged 911 to the pit.

"Brooke Dates, 6 year old female, presented with shortness of breath, what was described as pleuritic chest pain, and a cough, she was tachycardic, but we calmed the heart down, paramedics brought her in 5 minutes ago with her big brother who was babysitting" Zari said when she saw Sara. "Excellent Dr. Tarazi," Sara started before continuing into the trauma room. "Okay, we're looking at what I believe to be a pulmonary embolism, page cardio and get me a CTPA," Sara demanded as she walked into the room, Zari nodded, and ordered the CT, and the nurses nodded and got her ready to move.

She was about to leave when she saw a brunette, teenage boy, maybe 14 looking worriedly at the little girl being taken away. "Hi, I'm Sara," Sara smiled kindly.

"I'm Nicolas, but I go by Nico."

"Hi, Nico."

"What happened to Brooke?"

"I think something happened to your sister's lungs, I asked my friend to get her a CTPA which is a CT pulmonary angiography which just means we're gonna try to get some pictures of her lungs, okay?" Sara tried to explain. The boy nodded slowly, "That kind of makes sense."

"Yeah, it does, have you called your parents?" Sara asked kindly, but he shook his head no. "Okay, let's go do that."

After calling the parents and getting the boy set up with social services for a little while, Sara went to see the results of the CT, shocked to see Ava had already taken them. "You made a cardio assessment, and got scans without waiting for my approval?" The taller woman said angrily when seeing Sara.

"Yeah, I'm a trauma and Peds surgeon, I've seen this before."

"You're lucky the scans came back positive for a PE or else you'd have to take blame when the chief asks why we wasted money on a CTPA."

”So you wouldn’t have gotten the CTPA?”

”I would’ve, but I’m the Cardiothoracic surgeon!"

”What’s with the stick up your ass?” Sara rolled her eyes and grabbed the

”I don’t know, here I was, thinking we were friends and you don’t talk to me for a week, so maybe there’s a stick up your ass.”

”Just because we’re ‘friends,’” Sara did finger quotes around friends, “doesn’t mean that I have to talk to you every day!”

“It does mean you’re not supposed to avoid me, which you’ve definitely been doing!”

”There is a 6 year old girl with a massive PE,” Sara yelled pointing at the CT machine before directing her attention to everyone else in the room, “Someone get an OR!” She directed her attention back to Ava, “I’m guessing Dr. Sharpe has been too excited to yell at me to get it.”

"Should I get Chief Hunter?" Zari asked, the two doctors. 

"No, we're fine," Sara said, her and Ava were having a bit of a stare off right now, so she didn't dare look away.

"You're a shitty friend."

"I know."

With that, they walked to the scrub room. Zari followed them, and scrubbed, but she noticed the blondes didn't.

"Are you guys not scrubbing?" 

"We have to discuss something," Sara said, and Zari nodded before walking into the OR.

"I was vulnerable with you. I told you something I never tell people, and I got scared, so I started to avoid you."

"Okay."

"And I'm sorry."

"Okay."

They silently scrubbed for a minute before Sara spoke, "Now you're supposed to apologize."

"For? I didn't do anything wrong," Ava grinned.

"Okay, Ms. 'You should've waited for cardio even though you were 1,000,000% right,'" Sara teased and Ava rolled her eyes, "No idea what you're talking about Ms. Lance."

"I'm a doctor!" She yelled after Ava who had started walking into the OR.

"So am I, but you dubbed me Ms. 'blah blah blah' or whatever so now you're Ms. Lance," Ava called out behind her, and Sara felt like she was smirking.

The surgery went well, and by the time they finished, the girl's parents were there, Ava and Sara went to talk to the family as Zari watched from afar. She saw Charlie walking over and she grabbed her girlfriend's hand. "Babe, what's going on between them?" "I don't know, they're friends," Charlie shrugged, and walked away. Zari sighed in thought, there was definitely something else going on.

\----------------

"Dr. Palmer?" Zari tried to get the tall Neuro surgeon's attention as he walked past, he spun around to look at her.

"Hm?"

"I need your help with something."

"Is there a patient? Is everything okay!?"

"Yeah, but I'm gonna try to get Dr. Lance and Dr. Sharpe together."


	6. "Mandatory Leave"

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Zari's master plan and a surprise guest

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry it took a while to update,, I've been writing a lot of Marina (go watch Station 19, stan Marina for clear skin), but anyways! Here it is!

"You're trying to get two of your attendings to start hooking up?" Ray asked, confused.

"Yep."

"Why?"

"Because they have so much chemistry! How do you not see it?"

"I do! Trust me, I do! It's just shouldn't we let them do it on their time?"

"Dr. Sharpe is obviously crushing on Lance, but she can't see it!"

"Trust me, Sara's got game, she'll ask Ava out on her own time."

"You're useless," Zari groaned, and the tall neurosurgeon just shrugged before walking out. Zari was gonna get them together. She had to.

\-------------------

**A WEEK LATER**

"Sharpe! No, you're joking!" Sara exclaimed.

They were sitting in the attendings' lounge talking and snacking on some candy Sara had in her locker.

"No! He had managed to inhale them all! I had to surgically remove them!" Ava continued her story. They were both on call, so they decided to hang out in the attendings' lounge, and at this point they were just exchanging crazy patient stories.

"Wait- What did you say he blamed it on?" Sara laughed. Ava loved her laugh, it was freeing.

"His boss."

They just grinned at each other for a moment.

"So, uhm, yeah, yeah that was my first solo surgery," Ava swallowed after a moment. They sat there awkwardly, just staring at each other for a minute before Ava's pager went off. "Oh-Uh I have to- I have to go," Ava pointed at her pager before running to the pit. When she got there, she saw Nora standing there, biting her lip.

"Ava, hey, is Sara with you?" Nora looked around. Ava shook her head no and raised an eyebrow. "Okay, bed 5." Ava walked over to the bed and gasped quietly when she saw who the patient was. She realized why Nora made sure Sara wasn't with her.

"Quentin Lance, 62, came in with chest pains and shortness of breath," Gary said from besides her.

"Dr. Lance, hi, uhm, to what do we owe this pleasure?" Ava asked with a smile as she took the chart from Gary.

"Your resident just explained my problem," He raised an eyebrow and Ava let out a quick chuckle, "Yes, but you are a world-renowned surgeon, I assume you have a cardiologist?"

"Oh, yeah, he's on vacation, and I wanted to see where my daughter works. Plus, I heard you're the best."

"Should I page Sar- your daughter? Should I page your daughter?"

"No. Not until you have a diagnosis."

"Yes, sir," Ava swallowed, she hoped they got one soon because she did not want to keep this from Sara. "Green, get me scans and labs, page me instantly when you have them." Gary nodded and took Quentin to CT.

Ava leaned her elbow on the ER nurses station and put her head in her hands.

"Sharpe! Hey!" Sara came up behind her causing her to jump.

"L-Lance, hi!"

"Hey, I need your opinion on these scans, uhm, an 8 year old just came into the ER," Sara said giving, Ava the scans. "I'm planning a thoracotomy with Rory, but I wanna make sure you agree." Ava looked at the scans and bit her lip while shaking her head.

"Let me guess, you're gonna lecture me on everything we're doing wrong?"

"No!" Sara raised a knowing eyebrow. "Okay, yes, I just think a thoracotomy might night be the best approach."

"What would you recommend then?"

"Have Rory perform a minimally invasive procedure instead."

Sara swallowed, "Well, funny story, his kid's sick so he didn't come to his night shift and I need help in the OR?"

"Are you asking for my help?"

"No!" Sara looked disgusted. Ava just raised an eyebrow and smirked. "Okay, yes," Sara copied the girl's earlier face.

Almost as soon as Ava finished her surgery with Sara she got a page saying Quentin's scans were done. "Shit. I have to go," Ava ran off.

She saw the scans as soon as she walked into the room and sighed sadly. "Page Hunter and Lance, 911. I know he's not on shift right now, but page Palmer, same with Constantine." Gary just nodded before doing as asked.

"What's wrong?" Sara sprinted in before freezing at the scans, "Wow, that's a monster tumor, invading the left ventricle, the lungs, and holy- even the spine?" Ava nodded, "Uhm ye-yeah, yeah it is."

"And this is in a kid? I mean it must've been growing for years- surely before the kid was born, how did the OB miss this?" Sara scoffed, but Ava had stopped paying attention to her. Instead, she was looking at Rip who had just walked, she nodded slowly, confirming the scans were Quentin's. He sighed and walked further into the room. "Why's Rip here? It's not a job for a General Surgeon?"

"Lance, sit down," Ava tilted her head towards the chair behind the shorter girl. "I'm fine standin-" "Sara, please! Sit," Ava begged. Sara sat down with a confused look on her face, "What's going on, you're scaring me?" No one answered her.

"Rip?" She tried, but he just looked at Ava.

"Okay, look, you guys obviously have some secret, so tell me! There's a kid with a massive tumor and they're probably scared a-and paralyzed, so just tell me!"

"It's not a kid," Ava whispered quietly.

"Wh- Sharpe, if it's not a kid, why did you page me 911!"

"It's your dad," Ava said with a shaky breath.

"What?" Sara let out a confused laugh.

"Lance, all of your patients are being handed off, and you're on mandatory leave," Rip said sternly before walking away.

Sara's voice broke and she pointed at the scans, "Tha-those are my dads?" Ava nodded silently. "Oh my God," Sara gasped. "Sara, I'm so-"

"No! Don't say you're sorry! J-just figure out how to fix him!" Sara snapped and Ava just mouthed "okay" and looked down. "Gary, uhm, i'm gonna look at this more, will you take Lance to her dad, please?" Gary nodded silently, Ava swore you could hear a pin drop right now with the room's current volume. Sara followed Gary out of the room.

Ava looked at the scans all night, Palmer came in after an hour or two to look at them with her, and he agreed he would need Constantine's help with the spine.

Sara, on the other hand, spent the entire night holding her dad's hand. When he was sleeping, and awake, and calling her sister, when they found out whether the tumor was malignant or benign (it was benign thankfully). She just couldn't think about anything except him. At around 5am she decided to go to an on-call room to try to get some sleep.

Ava didn't know what time it was. She just needed sleep. She spent all night trying to figure out how to remove the tumor, she just went to the nearest on-call room.

As she entered, she heard soft sobs, she was gonna leave and let whoever it was have their privacy until she saw her. Sara was sitting on one of the beds, holding her knees to her chest as she cried quietly. Ava sighed quietly before closing and locking the door. She sat next to her friend and started slowly rubbing her back, Sara leaned her head on Ava's shoulder and cried herself to sleep.


	7. "It's a date."

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sara and Ava's relationship continues to evolve.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry its short!

**A/N I am not a doctor, I have no idea how correct any of the medicine in this chapter is**

Her dad had a tumor. Her dad had a tumor. Her dad had a fucking tumor and ignored it. He was a goddamn surgeon. A world-renowned surgeon, and he ignored it. He already had a heart problem, so his cardiologist either missed this or he stopped going to the cardiologist. Sara didn’t want to know the answer.

“What are you gonna do?” Sara asked as she brought Ava a coffee. The taller girl hadn’t left the hospital in a week, trying to figure it out. Sara said she could, but she refused. Sara didn’t leave either.

“I- uh- I think I’m gonna get him a heart-lung transplant,” Ava said before taking a small sip of the coffee.

“And the rest of the tumor?” Sara scoffed. She instantly thought this plan was dumb. He still had the tumor wrapping around his spine.

“Constantine and Palmer get as much of it out as they can before I put the new heart and lungs in, depending on your dad’s state and how much they get out, they go back in asap and get the rest,” Ava explained as she bit her lip.

“Ava, that’s a terrible idea! The chances he’ll make it off the table are-”

“Slim! The chances are slim! But I don’t know what to do!” Ava snapped before placing the coffee on the desk, sitting down, and putting her head in her hands

“I know, it’s a bad idea Sara, but it’s the best we have been able to come up with. We considered doing an ex-vivo fix, but the tumor is completely- it’s a monster,” Ava sighed and Sara looked down, she was being rude to the girl, but it was her dad.

“I am- I’m sorry. I’m being rude.”

“Don’t. Don’t be sorry. J-just let me think, and go be with your dad and your sister, Sara,” Ava said softly. Sara nodded sadly before walking out of the room. She honestly felt best when with Ava. The stress of her dad got better. She trusted Ava could do this. She needed Ava to do this.

On the way back to her dad’s room, she ran into Zari, who gave her the rundown on all her patients. They were all doing good, thankfully. All she wanted to do was work, but Rip being Rip wasn’t letting her.

“Laur, hey,” Sara said as she walked in with coffees. Laurel took a sip and scrunched her face, “It’s cold!”

“It wasn’t, I brought Ava one first.”

“Ava issss?” Laurel smirked, she had a feeling they were dating, but she wasn’t sure.

“My friend, and dad’s doctor.”

“I know she’s dad’s doctor, but she’s honestly just a friend?”

“Yes, Laurel, I’ve been telling you this since you got in town. She is just a friend!” Sara said before playfully hitting the back of her sister’s head and sitting down next to her at their dad’s bedside.

“How were his stats overnight?”

“Good, which you would know, if you weren’t with your girlfriend!” Laurel teased and Sara rolled her eyes, “Ava Sharpe is just a friend!”

“Okay,” Laurel nodded, but she obviously wasn’t convinced.

“We aren’t dating!”

“Who aren’t you dating?” Ava asked as she walked in, Gary and Ray close behind her.

“NO ONE!” Sara yelled and she turned red, and looked at Laurel who smirked knowingly.

“Right, okay, uhm, Dr. Lance,” Ava said looking at the chart in her hand.

“Yeah?” “Yup?” “What’s up?” Sara, Quentin, and Laurel said at the same time. Quentin had just woken up to hear the last of his daughter’s teasing, but didn’t get to join in before Ava came in the room.

“Right, sorry, all three of you are doctors,” Ava looked up and smiled before looking back down. “Quentin, we would like to get you a heart transplant, but your tumor makes you a bad candidate,” Ava started sadly before Ray cut in.

“So Dr. Constantine and I are going to take as much of the tumor from your spine as we can, while Dr. Sharpe is gonna try to get you a heart-lung transplant.”

“Why don’t you operate on my heart and lungs?” Quentin asked

“The tissue is too damaged, and the tumor is too big, it’s a miracle your heart is still beating,” Gary explained and Ava glared at him.

“That’s not how I would have put it, but he’s right. I can’t operate on your heart.”

Ava watched as all of the Lance’s made the same face and nodded.

Ava walked out of the room and Sara bit her lip before following her.

“Ava, wait!”

Ava spun around quickly and raised an eyebrow.

“Join me for dinner tonight, we both could use some time out of the hospital, and uh, I would like to take you to dinner.”

“Like a date or?” Ava bit her lip.

“It could be,” Sara smirked nervously.

“Okay, it's a date.”


	8. "Ava, hey"

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> AvaLance first date :)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ahhh this was basically me copying 3x12 dialogue with some of my own, plus making it fit the story.

Tonight, she was having dinner with Sara. Tomorrow, she was operating on Sara’s dad. If he died- Well, if he died Sara would never forgive her. She didn’t want to get her hopes up. Tomorrow, they would hopefully get a heart transplant since Constantine and Ray were doing the spinal tumor.

Okay, maybe Ava wouldn’t be the one operating, but she would be there during the procedure and she would monitor his heart. She still had the feeling if he died Sara would never forgive her.

She got to the restaurant a few minutes early to see Sara already there, wearing a red romper she looked incredibly hot in (it made her blue eyes pop, Ava hadn’t realized how pretty they were before), slowly sipping on a cocktail.

She watched Sara turn around, the shorter girl’s jaw dropped slightly at the sight of Ava in her short navy dress (A/N I liked the colour of the dress they put Ava in, but not the dress itself sooo it’s a short navy dress now :)).

“Hi,” Ava chuckled nervously (‘ _ chuckled nervously’ Ava DID NOT chuckle nervously. She’s not a ‘chuckled nervously’ kind of person. What was Sara doing to her? _ ).

“Wow,” Sara smiled as she stood up and pranced over to the taller girl, “You look..” she trailed off, trying to find the way to describe the words for the taller girl. Sara had never seen her like this, her hair down, her long legs so,  _ so _ exposed.

“Weird… I look weird right?”

“I mean, I was gonna say beautiful, but…” Sara chuckled at the girl’s awkwardness.

“Thank you, so do you I mean,” Ava’s eyes slowly trailed down her body before making their ways back to Sara’s eyes, getting distracted by the cleavage for a second before finally getting back to the bright blue eyes, “ _ Wow. _ ”

They chuckled awkwardly before heading back to the table, each pulled out a chair for the other.

They chuckled before both sitting down and staring at each other for a minute.

After Ava ordered her drink (or copied Sara’s drink, whatever you wanna say), they made some small talk.

They decided not to talk about work or patients because of HIPAA plus work was stressful sometimes.

“So, uh, how did you get a reservation so last minute?”

“I was enlisted with the husband of the owner, the husband owes me one,” Sara explained.

Half way through the night, after explaining something about her and her sister as children, Sara noticed how Ava was swirling her finger around in her glass, and how she looked kinda bored.

“Why do you look like you already know this?” She asked with a raised eyebrow.

“I  _ may _ have snooped through your file,” Ava admitted with an awkward, bitback smile.

Sara let out a mix of a dramatic gasp and a chuckle.

“In my defense! It was when you first started, and were an ass, I didn’t think you were trustworthy! Plus, I did not see this coming”

“Okay, Ms. Snooper, what would you like to know that you don’t know already?” Sara teased.

Ava hummed for a few moments as she thought, “Uh, you always seem so composed and cool,” She stopped to chuckle as Sara jokingly tried to look cool, “but you can’t be all cool all the time, sooooo what’s the most embarrassed you’ve ever been?”

“That’s an easy one, the first time I ever held a weapon in my hand.”

“Med school?” Ava assumed she was referring to a scalpel as a weapon.

“Nope, Starling City Elementary, I was Peter Pan in the school play,” Sara cringed and Ava’s jaw dropped with excitement with this new information. “I got up on stage and I just totally froze, I couldn’t remember any of my lines. It was like my mind just went blank,” Sara revealed with a chuckle and Ava started to laugh and asked what Sara did.

Sara looked to her purse as her phone started to ring before looking back to Ava, “I broke into a tap dance,  _ of course. _ And then, I ran off stage crying.”

“You can dance?” Ava looked mesmerized and it caused Sara to smirk in satisfaction.

She looked at her phone as it rang again and Ava sighed, “Go ahead you can check it.”

“I-I’m sure it’s nothing, I- I’m just gonna,” Sara gestured at her phone before bringing it up to her ear and playing the voicemail.

“ _ It wasn’t my idea, _ ” Gideon’s voice came to her ear as she listened to Gideon describe what a few residents decided on for one of her patients. The patient was fine now, but they gave the kid some medicine he was allergic to, and almost didn’t notice. They wouldn’t have if it wasn’t for Gideon.

“Everything okay?” Ava asked with a smile, she knew Sara was a doctor too.

“Yeah, totally fine,  _ normal  _ in fact,” Sara smirked before they continued talking for a while. Her patient was fine. Plus they weren’t talking about work.

They continued to just get to know each other. Ava described her 15th birthday party and Sara chuckled at how ruthless the taller girl was during paintball.

Ava took a sip of her drink before seeing Gary in the corner, gesturing for her to come over, she started choking on it before looking at Sara who seemed slightly concerned.

“I- I am gonna be right back, I have to uhm use the washroom,” Ava said as she gestured to the side and walked over.

“They got new scans, the tumor spread, they just started surgery.”

“You couldn’t have just called and told me that!?” Ava asked annoyed.

Gary laughed nervously before explaining his phone and pager were dead. Apparently he hadn’t thought of using another doctor’s phone or pager (God, she needed a new cardio resident because  _ this _ was unacceptable).

She walked back to the table to tell Sara what happened, to see no Sara, but instead 5 $20 bills on the table.

Sara ditched her.

What. The. Fuck.

Zari ended up paging her for something to do with a 12 year old almost immediately after, so she sent Gary to monitor Lance’s heart (she was hoping it didn’t need to be operated on because Gary would for sure screw that up) as she went to the 12 year old.

Okay, so apparently Sara had been paged in. A kid had an allergic reaction to something and they thought it had been reversed, but it had a weird effect on his heart.

After doing a microsurgery on the kid, and not saying anything to Sara after the blonde had told her the situation, she, Sara, Zari, and Nate were in a doctor’s lounge talking about the mission.

“Ava, hey,” Sara started, wanting to better explain herself.

“Don’t ‘Ava, hey’ me, you stood me up, jerk.”

“Maybe we should-” Nate gestured for them to leave and Zari nodded eagerly before the two residents left.

“I gotta hand it to you, Lance. You take the phrase ‘dine and dash’ to a new level.”

“Look, my patient was crashing, my residents needed help,” Sara defended herself and Ava chuckled, obviously annoyed.

“Why does that not surprise me?”

“You know- this was never gonna work out!” Sara lashed out, trying to offend Ava now.

“Really? Because I am a mature person who actually can communicate?” Ava asked as she shoved past Sara towards her locked, purposely bumping herself into the shorter girl.

“Oooh? Really? Such a communicator! Like when you said you were going to the bathroom?”

“What are you talking about?”

“You think I didn’t see Gary?”

“Oh my- Your dad’s scans got back, I was coming back to the table to tell you!”

Sara put her head in hands and briefly thought about her dad’s scans before shaking off the thought, “You know this is pointless?!”

“Yeah, it is!”

“We never should have tried to be normal, we’re doctors! I’m not normal, alright? I am never gonna be normal, and I’m not gonna be normal for anyone!”

“I don’t want you to be normal!”

“You don’t?”

“Hell, no,” Ava sighed.

All of the sudden, Ava felt soft lips on her’s. Hands found hair and waist holding each other close.

They heard a cough from the door, they quickly pulled away as Ray stepped in, “Sara, we’re about to take your dad up to surgery, did Gary tell you about the scans yet?”

She shook her head no and followed Ray to an exam room.


	9. a call from UNOS

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> As soon as they were in the room, Ava felt herself being pushed against the door. Then, she felt soft lips attacking her own.
> 
> “Sara, we’re- I’m at work,” Ava gasped out when the lips moved to her neck.
> 
> “I wanna celebrate,” Sara whispered as she pulled Ava’s black scrubs over her head, “So let’s celebrate.”

The day had been long. Sara and Ava’s date had been a week ago, and they had barely been able to see each other since. Mostly because Ava hadn’t left the hospital since.

Quentin’s surgery had gone  _ okay. _ They had been able to resect some of the tumor on his spine, but most of it was still there. Ava had to fight with UNOS to even get him on the transplant list because of his age and previous heart difficulties, but she managed to get him on it. She had been doing more research to find ways to shrink the tumor, it was benign so no radiation or chemo would work, but there had to be something.

Sara, on the other hand, had been doing a lot just cleaning up and unpacking at her apartment. After the night of their date, Ray showed her her father’s scans before she was berated by Rip for helping out with her patient having an allergic reaction. She was told to spend some time out of the hospital, she got no more special treatment and was only allowed in the hospital during visiting hours.

Although she wished she could be with her dad, it was somewhat relieving to just be at home, and take a breath. Laurel was also told no special treatment, and had been living on Sara’s couch.

Every morning, Sara would send Ava a good morning text, and usually got a ‘morning’ in response, then, Ava just disappeared, no text or anything until the next morning. Whenever she was at the hospital, Ava would send Gary into check on her dad, it was like she was avoiding Sara, but today, that was going to change.

Sara had been expecting the taller girl to make a move so, for a week, she waited, but nothing. It was up to Sara.

“Hey, Laur, I’ll meet you in dad’s room in a little,” Sara said as they walked into the hospital.

“Uhm, yeah, but where are you going?” Laurel asked with a raised eyebrow.

“I’m gonna bring Ava some coffee, I haven’t seen her since our date, she’s been cooped up trying to help dad, so I wanna make sure she’s okay,” Sara shrugged before walking towards the coffee cart. She heard a, “get me a coffee too please,” from behind her.

30 minutes later, she was pacing outside Ava’s office. She had looked through the window in the door to see the blonde working and looking at her dad’s scans, Ava had handed all of her patient’s off to Rory to focus solely on Quentin.

Sara finally opened the door and had to hold back a laugh when Ava didn’t even notice the shorter girl walking in. Sara silently walked over, put the coffees on a desk, and she placed her hands onto the taller girl’s hips before leaning in and put her head on the other girl’s shoulder. She felt Ava jump before she recognized who it is and leaned into the embrace.

“Hi,” Ava said with a soft breath.

“Hi, we haven’t really talked since we kissed,” Sara said before pressing a kiss on the place Ava’s neck and jaw met. It was somewhat intimate considering they had only kissed once before.

“No we haven’t,” Ava sighed before turning around in the shorter girl’s arms and kissing her lips. She felt a tongue slide across her bottom lip and she opened her mouth, allowing the tongue to enter her mouth.

The two girls got lost into the kiss until Sara pushed Ava into the desk and the taller girl pulled back with a quiet gasp, “We’re at work, Sara.”

“ _ You’re _ at work.”

“How’s your dad feeling?”

“I haven’t seen him yet this morning, I just wanted to bring you a coffee, and see how things were going on your front,” Sara said as she turned around to grab her and Ava their coffees.

“You look good,” Ava said as she finally took in Sara’s outfit, a grey tank top tucked into high-waisted black jeans, and a brown biker jacket.

“Mm,” Sara hummed as she handed the tan girl one of the coffees, “Thanks, you look pretty good yourself.” The black scrubs did look good on Ava, they made her eyes stand out.

They sat in a comfortable silence as Ava drank her coffee and Sara looked over the research.

“Come home with me tonight,” Sara stated randomly. Ava looked up with a raised eyebrow, “What?”

“You’ve barely left the hospital since my dad was admitted-”

“I went on a date with you!” Ava cut the peds surgeon off to defend herself.

“And then you came right back to the hospital,” Sara said with a light chuckle that caused Ava to smile.

“I-” Ava cleared her throat, “I should stay here and work.”

“Ava, I have yet to get you out of your clothes and we went on a date a week ago, it’s honestly kind of embarrassing for me. Come home with me tonight, I’ll have Laurel spend the night here, we’ll have dinner, some drinks, and then I’ll get you naked and I will blow your mind,” Sara smirked and she watched the other woman blush.

“If I agree will you let me focus for the rest of the day?” Ava asked, her cheeks bright red.

“Maybe, maybe not, will you actually talk to me today?”

“Maybe, maybe not,” Ava smirked at the blue eyed girl who rolled her eyes.

Sara put her coffee back down and kissed Ava again. She could taste some of the coffee on Ava’s lips and she smiled happily into the kiss.

“I will see you later,” Sara whispered against Ava’s lips before she spun on her heels and went to get Laurel’s coffee.

“What took you so long?” Laurel asked as she quickly grabbed the coffee from her sister’s hands.

“I went to see Ava, then we got  _ distracted _ . I also got your coffee on the way back so it wouldn’t be cold. You’re welcome.”

“You didn’t get me coffee?” Her dad asked with a frown.

“Nope, you’re fasting in case your organs get here,” Sara smiled at her father. 

“I’ve been fasting for forever! I’m hungry!” He complained.

“Well, Dr. Lance, I am happy to say you don’t have to fast too much longer, I just got a call from UNOS. It’s not 100% certain, but we think we’ve got you organs, the ” Ava said happily as she sauntered into the room. Sara quickly pulled her into a hug before cupping her face and kissing her quickly.

“God, thank you! Thank you! Thank you!” Sara said as she hugged Ava again.

“Yes, yeah of course,” Ava said shyly.

After a few more hugs and thank yous, Sara grabbed Ava’s hand and pulled her to an on-call room.

As soon as they were in the room, Ava felt herself being pushed against the door. Then, she felt soft lips attacking her own.

“Sara, we’re- I’m at work,” Ava gasped out when the lips moved to her neck.

“I wanna celebrate,” Sara whispered as she pulled Ava’s black scrubs over her head, “So let’s celebrate.”

Ava threw her head back and gave in as she felt a well-timed bite against her collarbone, she started to push off Sara’s jacket when her phone rang. She bit her lip as she reached for it and answered the call with a “Hi, this Dr. Sharpe.”

It sounded oddly professional. Feeling professional right now was weird since she was about to have sex in the hospital.

Or at least that had been the plan until she heard what the person on the phone had to say. She hung up solemnly and Sara raised a confused eyebrow, “What’s wrong? What happened?”

“Your dad got passed by someone else- someone higher on the list. I’m so sorry Sara,” Ava said before throwing her shirt on and leaving the room.

Maybe she should have stayed, held the now disappointed blonde, but she couldn’t bring herself to look at Sara. She gave her so much hope only to have to take it away. She went to tell Laurel and Quentin before hiding herself back into her office to try to find a way to get the tumor without killing the eldest Dr. Lance,

Meanwhile, Sara sat in the on-call room, shocked. Ava just turned around and left. She just left when Sara had been crushed- she had just turned around and left when Sara had been broken down. What the hell was that?

Sara went back to her dad’s room and on the way, she ran into Constantine. Next thing she knew, she was in an on-call room making out with the blond man. She didn’t feel bad about it. It wasn’t like her and Ava were exclusive. They hadn’t even had sex yet, they had only gone on one date.

A half hour later, Sara was sitting up with her head in her hands as a naked John Constantine was laying down next to her. She was telling herself she didn’t feel bad about it. She  _ wished _ she didn’t feel bad about it, but when Ava walked in to find something in the on-call room and squeaked a quick little, “Oop- Sorry!” before noticing who it was and gasping quickly, “S-Sara, what- nevermind, I don’t want to know,” and ran out.

Then, Sara felt bad.


	10. Dr. Casey Palmer

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “I’m sorry."  
> “Why? I’m not mad. You didn’t cheat on me, you had a rough day, so you slept with someone, but we weren’t together.”  
> “But I want us to be!”  
> “Well, if you sleep with just anyone after a rough day, I don’t want us to be.”

**Two weeks later**

“Ava-“

“I’m working, Dr. Lance,” Ava replied calmly as she read through one of her patients' charts. It actually scared Sara how calm the taller doctor was.

“I’m sorry,” Sara whispered quietly, voice full of remorse.

“Why?” Ava said as she signed something on the chart, flipped it close and handed it to a nurse. Sara stared at her, mouth agape causing Ava to sigh, tuck her pen in the pocket of her scrub shirt and finally look at Sara, “I’m not mad. You didn’t cheat on me, you had a rough day, so you slept with someone, but we weren’t together.”

“But I want us to be!”

“Well, if you sleep with just anyone after a rough day, I don’t want us to be,” Ava said with a shrug before turning on her heel and walking away.

“She avoids me for two weeks just to tell me she’s not mad? She’s lying right?” Sara asked Zari. The peds prospect and her had worked together a few times and they had become decent friends.

“Probably women are difficult like that,” Charlie shrugged. Oh yeah, Charlie was there too, they were in an OR, treating a 7 year old burn victim.

“Hey! I’m not difficult!” Zari exclaimed from her spot next to sara on the other side of the table

“Sure you aren't, love,” Charlie smiled at her girlfriend before looking down at the burn she was currently debriding.

“She’s still working on my dad’s case, I just don’t get her!” 

“Maybe you should talk about it with her,” Charlie shrugged before she got a page, “Hey, I gotta go handle something in the pit, you guys got this?”

“Yep!” Zari replied cheerfully.

Sara had been allowed to operate again a two days ago, after her dad got a heart transplant. He had gotten one on Wednesday, it was Sunday now, and Ava had been talking to her even less.

Sara sighed and continued working.

“You’re really not mad?” Nora asked her best friend as they were eating lunch.

“I’m not, I get it, it was a rough day, I’m just not looking to be with someone who runs to sleep with anyone when things get hard,” Ava shrugged.

“Are you hurt? I mean she cheated on you,” Nora continued cautiously, she had no idea what was going through her friend’s head.

“God no, I’m not hurt. And she didn’t cheat on me. We weren’t official or anything, we went on a date, kissed a few times- that’s it. I’m not sad or hurt or angry or frustrated- I just,” Ava thought for a second before shrugging, “I just am.”

“Okay, then, would you like to come over for dinner tonight?” Nora asked as her pager went off.

“Uhm, sure, just as long as there’s no Sara,” Ava answered before she watched her best friend start to stand up and walk away.

“There won’t be,” Nora answered before running off to the ER.

Ava finished eating before cleaning up both her and Nora’s stuff.

That night, Ava knocked on Nora’s door, only for it to be answered by a random woman she didn’t know.

“Hi?” Ava said hesitantly.

“Hi, you must be Nora’s friend right?” The woman asked cheerfully. She was short, 5’3 maybe, and her eyes were a beautiful sea green, that went amazingly well with her tanned skin and wavy brunette hair.

“Uh, yeah, yeah- Dr. Ava Sharpe,” The blonde stuck out a hand.

“Dr. Casey Palmer, I’m Raymond’s cousin,” The girl said as she connected her hand with Ava’s and shook it softly.

“Doctor?” Ava asked with a raised eyebrow.

“Yeah, I’m a civil and environmental engineering professor at Northwestern,” Casey explained before stepping out of the way to let Ava into the house.

“So, why’d you-”

“Ava! Hey!” Nora called out as she ran out of the kitchen, “I see you’ve met Case.”

“Mhm,” Ava nodded, “I have indeed.”

“Cool, well, Syd is in her room, she got a new toy she’s been dying to show off,” Nora said before turning around and walking back into the kitchen.

Ava nodded and walked upstairs to the little girl’s room, faintly aware of the person following her.

“Hey, kiddo, you mama told me you got a new toy,” Ava smiled as she walked into the bright purple room.

“Yeah! Look! It’s a doctowur bawbie that look like you!” The little girl smiled as she waddled to her dollhouse and grabbed the toy.

“Woah kid! This is amazing! When’d you get it?” Ava said as she sat down next to the girl and examined the barbie doll more closely. It had blonde hair and light bluish greenish eyes, but Ava supposed that’s all it needed to look like to get 

“Two days ago! Therwe was one that looked like Ms. Peyton too! but mama said you and hewr bwoke up, tho I couldn’t get it,” Nora said as she took the doll back and put it back in its place in the dollhouse.

“Yeah, we did, kiddo, about 6 months ago,” Ava said, she hadn’t really thought about Peyton a lot recently, especially after Sara had showed up at the hospital.

“That’s thad,” Sydney pointed out. Ava couldn’t help, but smile at the little girl’s struggle with her “s” and “r” sounds during their conversation.

“It was, but I feel all better now. How about, me, you, and your Aunt Casey go downstairs to get some food?” Ava asked the kid. She hadn’t looked back at Casey at all during the conversation, but she knew the short woman had followed her.

“Oh, yeah! Daddy is making veggie pizza! He thays it’s weeeeally healfy!” Sydney exclaimed excitedly before taking off and running downstairs.

“She’s a mini Ray.”

“Just like Raymond.

Ava and Casey said at the same time. They looked at each other and laughed before heading downstairs themselves. Little did Ava know her night would end up with a lot of drink and she wouldn’t hear her phone ding when Sara texted her.

Sara had texted Ava like 10 times in the last 20 minutes. Something was wrong with her dad’s new heart and lungs, he wasn’t rejecting them, but he wasn’t doing too great either.

Ava Sharpe   
Today 6:35 

Sharpe, where the hell are you?  
I know you’re off shift, but it’s a 911  
need you here ASAP   
Ava, c’mon, my dad’s in cardiac  
arrest where are you??   
Hell, Ava, what the fuck get here!

Sara continued texting the girl until almost 8pm when she just gave up, Mick had ended up taking over which was okay. He was a decent surgeon, but Ava was the best, and she wanted the best operating on her dad.

The next morning, she woke up from her dad’s bedside and decided to go get a coffee from the coffee cart outside, and when she got there she saw Ava standing with someone who was pretty, shorter than Sara, and walking way too close to Ava for Sara’s liking.

Ava laughed at something the brunette standing next to her said, and Sara grit her teeth before walking over.

“Ava, hey!” Sara said as she plastered on a fake smile.

“Hey, Lance,” Ava said, her smile instantly dying down.

“Uhm, hi, Ms-” Sara cut herself off to make it clear she didn’t know who Ava was with.

“Oh, hi, I’m Dr. Casey Palmer.”

“Palmer? As in Ray Palmer?” Sara questioned with a raised eyebrow.

“Yeah, she’s his cousin, we met at Ray and Nora’s last night. We ended up staying up late and just crashed there. She works near here so we figured we’d get coffee on the way to work,” Ava explained with a shrug.

“Uh, yeah, anyways nice meeting you, Dr. Lance, I’m assuming,” Casey said gesturing to the badge on Sara’s scrub shirt.

“Oh, yeah.”

“Okay, well, I have a class in 20 minutes, so I have to go. Ava, we should go out for drinks tomorrow night,” Casey said turning her attention back to Ava.

“Yeah, definitely I’ll text you when I’m off shift.”

“Okay, see you.”

“See you,” Ava waved as she watched the brunette walk away.

“You have a girlfriend?” Sara asked, trying to be amused. Well, faking amusement.

“Nope, I’m not looking to date right now,” Ava answered quickly.

“Right, okay, well three weeks ago, you definitely were thinking about dating,” Sara mumbled.

“Yeah, but things changed,” Ava sighed before turning around and walking back into the hospital.


	11. Alone

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “Hey, Darhk, where’s Sharpe?” Sara asked as she made her way through the ER for a consult.  
> “She doesn’t work today and I’m not her keeper?” Nora stated, though it came out as more of a question due to her confusion.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry it's been a while. After some of the things Caity Lotz said I lost motivation, plus with no actual AvaLance content it's hard sometimes.

“Casey, you’re kidding!” Ava exclaimed with a laugh. In the two weeks she had known the short woman, they had become really great friends.

“No! I swear to you Ava! It’s an actual question a student asked me today!” Casey smiled. Her smile was very bright. It was so white it almost glowed.

“How’d they even get into Northwestern?”

Casey chuckled before whispering something into Ava’s ear. The blonde stared at her and mouthed “No” with her eyes wide, but the brunette just nodded with a laugh.

From two tables away, Sara sat with Mick. Ever since he saved her dad’s life, they’d gotten closer. Plus he was a nice drinking buddy.

“Blondie, you’re about to break the glass from squeezing it so hard,” The man mumbled before taking a sip of what had to be his 5th beer in as many minutes.

“No, I won’t.”

“It’s okay to be jealous, it’s natural,” Mick teased.

“Shut up!” Sara groaned before throwing a peanut at him. Within 30 minutes, they decided to go drink somewhere else because Sara said it was “too loud”

Two hours and many drinks later, Casey and Ava were practically joined at the hip.

“We should uh- I have to get home,” Ava told the brunette.

“Me too,” Casey smiled cheekily.

“You- you uh- you live kinda far, wanna just crash at my place?” Ava asked the brunette hummed contently and nodded.

Ava woke up with a groan and grasped her head, sometimes, she forgot she was no longer 20. Her back was sore and it was annoying her. She felt a chill run through her body and she suddenly realized she was minimally dressed, she was only wearing a sports bra and boy shorts, she quickly sat up, to look around and see she was on her living room floor. She looked to the side to see Casey sleeping on her couch in one of Ava’s old t-shirts and a pair of very short shorts.

Ava went to the island and grabbed her phone and her heart skipped a beat when she saw a text from Sara. She blamed it on the bright screen hitting her sore, tired eyes. The text was sent at around 11pm to ask Ava about when a patient they’d worked on together and the tall blonde couldn’t help but feel a little disappointed. That was until Sara left her mind when Casey walked through her kitchen as she stretched, Ava’s way too big shirt on the smaller girl rode up and showed a little bit of skin on her stomach.

“What happened last night after we left the bar?” Ava asked, she had suddenly realized that it was very possible they had hooked up. Casey was hot, they were both drunk, and when Ava woke up she was half-naked. She wouldn’t deny it if Casey told her it’s what had happened.

“We came here and ate a bunch of crackers while watching a movie and passed out,” Casey explained with a smile as she leaned on the counter to look at Ava who was sitting at a stool at the island.

“Anything you want is fair game, ma maison est ta maison,” Ava smiled kindly and walked around the counter to grab a mug for the coffee she had started.

“What does that mean?” The brunette blushed and Ava laughed lightly.

“My home is your home.”

“What language?”

“French,” Ava said with a smile as she sat back down.

“You speak French!?” Casey exclaimed and Ava nodded.

“I do, c’est mon langue préféré.” 

“What?” Casey bit her lip and examined Ava’s face.

“I said it’s my favorite language.”

“Ava. Sharpe. Do you speak others?”

“Oh, no, just French and English,” Ava blushed and the brunette laughed.

“Come on a date with me?” Casey blurted out randomly. Ava looked up, her eyes wide. There was a sureness in the other woman’s eyes that made her want to say yes. There was also Sara. Ava felt guilty and then mad and then furiated with the short surgeon for coming on her mind right now.

“I would love to,” Ava answered slowly, hoping this was the right decision and maybe it would help Sara get off her mind.

“Hey, Darhk, where’s Sharpe?” Sara asked as she made her way through the ER for a consult.

“She doesn’t work today and I’m not her keeper?” Nora stated, though it came out as more of a question due to her confusion.

“Okay, yeah, of course not, but I need to talk to her! I don’t work today either, but I got called in. Can you- Can you text her and tell her I’m looking for her,” Sara asked, bouncing a little from anxiety as she did. She had no idea what would happen next, how it would go, how seeing Ava would go. She had thought a lot over the last few days and decided she would try to win Ava back- or just win her general? She guessed.

All she knew is seeing the other woman with some shorty professor just didn’t sit right with her. The pediatric surgeon had operated on kids taller than Ray’s cousin.

“Uhm, sure, why though-” Nora stopped when she saw Sara hurrying away to look at the chart for why she was paged, “of course bud, anytime, no need to give me a reason!” Nora called after her before rolling her eyes and sending a quick test to Ava.

After a quick surgery she had to do, Sara checked her phone, eager to see if she had any notifications from Ava. She felt a little disappointed when she didn’t, but she shrugged it off. She deserved it. She was changing out of her scrubs and getting ready to check on her dad when she heard her phone ding. She hoped and prayed it was Ava. Only to check it to see it was Laurel telling her to hurry up and go see their dad.

Laurel had gone home about a week ago leaving Sara to be the only one checking in on their dad. If she hadn’t done it yet in the day her dad would text Laurel and complain and Laurel would text her.

“Dad, I have a phone too, just text me,” Sara had argued, but she knew it was also because her dad wanted to make sure he was still talking to Laurel as often as possible.

Sara put her phone in her locker and went to go check on her dad.

After seeing Nora’s text, Ava took a deep breath and looked at the small woman cuddling into her side as they watched a movie. She drafted out a quick text to Sara before pouting at how it sounded in her head and deleting it. 

“What’s up with you?” Casey asked and sat up to look at Ava.

“Not much, a friend asked to come over, but I,” She paused to put her phone down, “Am hanging out with you, so I’ll talk to her later.”

“Wait! Let her come over. I want to meet her!” Casey exclaimed and Ava gulped hesitantly. After a bit of convincing, Ava sent the text to Sara, inviting the short blonde over.

After about an hour, Sara hadn’t shown up yet, and Casey sighed.

“Sorry, I didn’t think she’d never get here,” Ava mumbled. This is exactly what was wrong with Sara. She never wanted to go all in with plans, or anything really.

“It’s fine, I’ll meet her another time, I have to go get ready for a tutoring thing I have soon,” Casey assured and stood up, making her way to the door.

Casey was starting to walk away when Ava grabbed her wrist, spun her around, and leaned down to kiss the professor. When they pulled away, Ava felt a little dazed and she watched a smirk appear on the smaller woman’s face.

“See ya Sharpe,” She gave a peace sign before walking to the elevators in Ava’s apartment.

Sara opened the doors to the stairs, logistically, she knew taking the elevator would be the fastest way to Ava’s floor of the apartment building, but she also knew the stair door was closer to Ava’s apartment than the elevators and somehow, that's what mattered the most to her right now.

She opened her mouth and started to say something when she saw Ava kissing someone outside the apartment door. She slowly slid back into the stairwell and left a quick text cancelling, making up a lie about a kid in the ER for her. Was this how Ava felt when Sara slept with John? The freckled woman had already felt bad, but that thought made it worse. She let out a long sigh and started to walk out of the apartment building, suddenly only wanting to be alone.


	12. Not A Chapter

Hi friends! I hope to update this ASAP but my family and I have all recently tested positive for covid. I need to focus on getting better and making sure my family gets better so the update I'm working on will be delayed. I apologize, but my health is more important than my fic. Have a wonderful day and stay safe!

ALSO my new semester starts today so after I get better there may be a delay so I can catch up on work

Basically this fic (and all my others) will be on hiatus for most of January


	13. 13.

What percentage of the total cost of the pad does the steel rebar account for?What percentage of the total cost of the pad does the steel rebar account for?“What the hell is wrong with you?!” A voice rang in Sara’s ears as she was exiting the hospital.

A week ago, she had seen Ava kissing Casey. Since then, she had avoided the taller blonde at all costs. Ava had apparently had enough.

“Lance!”

“Huh?”

“I asked what the hell is wrong with you? You ask to talk, I invite you over and you’re a no-show then you avoid me for a week! The hell is that?”

Sara just shrugged and tried to walk away, but Ava wouldn’t let her, she pinned the shorter girl against the brick walls of the hospital.

“Let me go, Ava.”

“Tell me what the hell it was- it is!”

“Will you leave me alone?”

“No!”

“Now, Ava,” Sara warned, a hint of darkness in her eyes.

“What happened- ow, shit! What the fuck?” Ava asked as she tried to grab her stomach that had very recently been met by Sara’s knee, only to find herself pinned to the bricks.

Ava looked into blue eyes and saw only anger and darkness, she had a bad feeling all of the sudden.

“I won’t ask again. Leave. Me. Alone!” Sara released Ava’s arms and marched off. She looked around to see people in the courtyard staring at her, having been stopped by the commotion on the way to their cars. She sighed and walked inside the building, suddenly needing to have a conversation with Rip.

“What do you mean!?” Sara exclaimed the next morning.

“I mean, Sharpe talked with me and said her patient count was overwhelming at the moment. Here we take our doctor’s mental health extremely important and your father’s hardest surgeries have already happened, so he is being moved to Rory’s service. Rory, who is just as good as Sharpe,” Rip exclaimed with a forced smile.

“So what? Ava is just leaving him! GIving him away without telling him! Just moving onto a new patient? That is- That is classic Ava,” Sara mumbled.

“Honey, it’s okay,” Her father tried to reason, but Sara just gritted her teeth, shook her head, and stormed off. On her way, she accidentally ran right into Nora.

“Watch where you’re- sorry Nora,” Sara apologized when she realized who ran into her- or who she ran into technically.

“What’s got you so grumpy?” Nora asked as she rubbed her head.

“Sharpe is so- urgh-” Sara cut herself off with a groan.

“Oh, I think she’s doing a surgery right now. I can tell her you need to talk to her… again.”

“Who does she think she is? She can’t just- she can’t just take herself off my dad’s case!” Sara ranted.

“Is this really about your dad?” Nora questioned cautiously.

“Of course, it is! What else would it be about?” Sara replied, anger obviously in her voice.

“You saw Ava and Casey kissing.”

“So?” Sara glared, this had nothing to do with that!

“You and Ava were- you know- for a bit. Maybe you feel abandoned by her and now you feel like she’s abandoned your dad, too,” Nora suggested and Sara opened her mouth to respond before taking a breath and nodding.

“This has nothing to do with Ava!”

“Hunter abandoned you too, you feel like you are constantly being abandoned.”

“Fuck off, Nora!”

“Fine, but I’m telling you, you need to talk to her. She’s not Rip and your dad is fine.”

Sara thought about what Nora said all day. Maybe she was right- well, no, she was definitely right. She needed to do something-anything, active. She found herself leaving for a run at around 10am. She ran and she ran and she ran, her thoughts running with her. At around 3pm, she ended up at her apartment, showered, and sent a text to Ava before getting changed to see her dad again.

“What does your text mean?” Ava asked as she pulled Sara out of the room.

“It means that I like you, and I know you have a thing with Casey, but I think you like me too, so I’m not giving up.”

“Sara,” Ava warned.

“I’m not giving up until I’m certain you don’t feel the same way.”

“It doesn’t matter if I feel the same way, I don’t trust you anymore, Sara!” Ava exclaimed.

“Ava, I made a mistake, a-and you just admitted that-”

“You made a mistake. We weren’t official but I certainly would have never done it to you. You don’t think, you’re reckless and-” Ava was cut off by soft lips.

“I’m still in the running, Ava. I promise.” And with that, Sara walked away, leaving a very confused Ava in her tracks,

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Next chapter will be the last


End file.
